The Withington Street development would include a parking deck with over 600 parking spaces. Architectural rendering by Krieger Klatt Architects

Ferndale residents can get a glimpse Wednesday of plans for a proposed development project to bring office buildings, apartments and parking decks to the downtown next year.

“It would be the largest new development we’ve done,” said Mayor Dave Coulter.

Jake Sigal — a Ferndale resident, tech entrepreneur and head of development group Ferndale 3-60 LLC — will give a presentation and take questions in a town hall meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Rustbelt Market on the northwest corner of Nine Mile and Woodward.

Sigal is the former CEO of Livo Radio, a startup tech company he sold to Ford Motor Co. last year for several million dollars.

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He has formed a development company and acquired an exclusivity agreement with the city to build a total of about 180,000 square feet of office and apartment space along with two multi-level parking decks in the downtown.

The $65 million development would be built on two municipal downtown parking lots, one on Withington and the other on Troy.

Ferndale has entered into a public/private development agreement with Sigal as a way to bring more office, residential and parking space to the downtown. But the proposed development is not a done deal and the city has yet to sign a purchase agreement with Sigal for the two parking lots.

Both sides are studying the feasibility of the project. Sigal is meeting regularly with Ferndale business and property owners and residents.

He, along with city officials, has already hosted a few meetings with downtown business owners and landlords.

Ferndale officials say the downtown has a shortage of more than 400 parking spaces. However, the city has struggled for years to find enough money build its own parking deck.

“In addition to our obvious parking needs, we need more people living and working in the downtown to support the businesses there,” Coulter said.

Still, it’s important that the proposed development not be too large or overshadow the existing downtown, he added.

Wednesday’s town hall gathering will wrap up the first round of meetings for business owners and residents.

Reaction to the development proposal so far has been positive, Coulter said, but business owners are concerned about where customers will park while construction is underway. Similarly, residents in neighborhoods near the downtown district already complain about too many people parking on their streets and don’t want to be inundated with more.

“We want to make sure this project fits the culture in the city,” Sigal said. “The property owners, business owners and residents are the key stakeholders we want to get input from. The issues that are the most important to them will affect the decisions we make going forward.”

Some are very happy with the proposed development and some are skeptical, he said.

“There is some confusion that we have already made a decision” on how the project will be built, Sigal said. “I think that’s because it’s uncommon for developers to work with the city and residents beforehand.”

Preliminary plans are to build an eight- to 12-story apartment building on the west side of the Withington parking lot. In the center would be a 600-space parking deck with office floors on top. An office building would occupy the east side of the current lot.

A 275-space parking deck is envisioned for the Troy Street parking lot with office spaces on top and three street-level retail spaces at the west end.